Reason versus emotion in healthcare marketing: insights from the US and China

Includes video content

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Best Practice

Soumya Roy, Warc Exclusive, Hall & Partners, April 2012

Pharmaceutical marketers have long focused on efficacy as the key driver of physician choice and patient use. View Summary

Pharmaceutical marketers have long focused on efficacy as the key driver of physician choice and patient use. However, this study from Hall & Partners in the US and China demonstrates that brand perceptions aren't built on efficacy alone. Taking the example of metastatic colorectal cancer treatments, it is demonstrated that doctors attribute subjective benefits to similarly effective brands which influence their recommendations to patients. Specific concepts are more attractive to doctors in different countries: in the US, oncologists appeared drawn to promises of greater control; while in China, they prioritised extended normal activity.

The biopharmaceutical industry is pretty poor at evaluating promotional effectiveness despite spending almost twice as much on promotion as it does on research and development - more than $12 billion a year in the US alone. View Summary

The biopharmaceutical industry is pretty poor at evaluating promotional effectiveness despite spending almost twice as much on promotion as it does on research and development - more than $12 billion a year in the US alone. However there is some sound, peer-reviewed evidence on the efficacy or different promotional instruments in the sector, which are summarised in this best practice paper.

This article is about elevating a prescription drug to the elusive status of “preferred brand” for doctors. View Summary

This article is about elevating a prescription drug to the elusive status of “preferred brand” for doctors. Nexium (PPI) was well known in the medical community for its efficacy, but had no unique identity. The launch of the “Gratitude” campaign helped Nexium pull away by elevating the brand to an emotional level. Overall sales volume increased by 15% and new patient volume (a lead indicator) increased by 8%. Also, the sales organization had mobilized around the campaign and found it easier than ever to get face time with doctors to talk about why Nexium is the better way to treat heartburn.

Schizophrenia is a devastating condition affecting approximately 1.5% of Australians. It is characterised by what are known as positive symptoms (feelings of being controlled by outside forces, delusions and hallucinations) and negative symptoms (attention impairment, lack of motivation, inability to cope and difficulties in communicating). View Summary

Schizophrenia is a devastating condition affecting approximately 1.5% of Australians. It is characterised by what are known as positive symptoms (feelings of being controlled by outside forces, delusions and hallucinations) and negative symptoms (attention impairment, lack of motivation, inability to cope and difficulties in communicating). Traditional treatments for schizophrenia (known as classical or typical antipsychotics) effectively treat the positive symptoms but have little effect on the negative symptoms leaving sufferers under control but barely functioning. A number of new treatments (known as atypical antipsychotics) have been developed which in addition to treating positive symptoms go some way to treating negative symptoms. Despite this, a large number of patients still take the traditional treatments and are suffering unnecessarily because of it. The challenge for us was to target psychiatrists to convert these patients to Solian, a new atypical antipsychotic. We had to make psychiatrists feel slightly uncomfortable about the level of treatment they were offering sufferers of schizophrenia. We did this by reminding psychiatrists that one of the most devastating symptoms of schizophrenia is the inability to 'give a damn' about yourself and therefore just because patients weren't complaining they shouldn't assume that everything was alright - they had to 'give a damn' for their patients.

In 2002, GlaxoSmithKline was faced with the threat of losing almost $5 million dollars in sales when they had to discontinue Becotide/Becloforte, due to an international agreement to phase out CFC containing products. View Summary

In 2002, GlaxoSmithKline was faced with the threat of losing almost $5 million dollars in sales when they had to discontinue Becotide/Becloforte, due to an international agreement to phase out CFC containing products. This risked handing Becotide and Becloforte's market share, to a generic version - imported and marketed by another company. For this campaign the marketing challenge was take this business threat and to reframe it as a business opportunity using the discontinuation as a trigger, to upgrade consumers to GlaxoSmithKline's newer asthma preventer, Flixotide. The strategy was clear: Position Flixotide, with its improved asthma control and GlaxoSmithKline heritage, as the natural, logical successor to Becotide/Becloforte. Overcoming a number of tough hurdles along the way, the campaign was a huge success, with results exceeding all expectations. 60% of Becotide/Becloforte customers were retained (vs a target of 50%) with an increase in Flixotide’s market share to 71% in December 2002 (vs 55% in January), ensuring Flixotide’s continued market leadership. And not only did GlaxoSmithKline benefit, people with asthma benefited from the change to Flixotide, with a huge 72% reporting improvements in their asthma after switching to Flixotide from Becotide or Becloforte.